AustLit

'Surviving cerebral catastrophe: a tale of the mind, mortality and modern medicine.

'On a trip to visit Pintubi friends in the remote western desert of central Australia, GP Dr Bill Williams wakes to a nightmare. Gisela, his wife, is felled by a thunderclap headache. What are the possibilities - migraine? neuralgia? or a burst blood vessel in her brain. They are 1500 kilometres from the nearest brain surgeon. Bill has to move fast, really fast.

'Will the injury to memory, identity, language and consciousness be profound? Just how plastic is the human brain? Can it really be rewired? Bleed is a rollercoaster ride from dry riverbed to flying doctor, surgeon's knife to intensive care ward and way beyond. ' (Publication summary)